I don't really understand this. So some processes will take precedence over others, depending on user commands? Say, I open amaroK while the system is setting the clock, and it decides to wait on the clock to get me amarok faster? Or is there more to it than that?

In any case, it sounds like good news for Linux, and it also sounds like it isn't far off._________________"I cannot support a movement that exploded spending and borrowing and blames its successor for the debt."
-Andrew Sullivan

it rather sounds like marketing babble. real time usually means less kernel overhead... or rather: no kernel overhead, i.e. no context switches and stuff, the application runs directly on the cpu without the kernel distributing cpu time between tasks. ( dos used to work like that, you'd talk to the OS using interrupts (you still do with linux, actually). the kernel didn't get in your way, but you could call it using interrupts, then it'd take over, do it's thing and return to the application. )

real time with linux could get tricky though, because of things like multitasking (can't have that without context switches; and you can't have context switches and real time at the same time). unless... on SMP systems it could work. you could run an application on one CPU exclusively and have all other tasks run on a different CPU._________________"Confident, lazy, cocky, dead." -- Felix Jongleur, Otherland

I believe it was developed for audio/video recording in linux where the 20-100ms delay is not really usable... that allows for <1ms of delay.

OSX also has a realtime audio layer.. the article sounds interesting, now where is our 2.8 kernel with real time processing?_________________My Systems - "I suggest the whole thing be coded in whitespace. Henceforth the code will be obscure and functional at the same time."

I believe it was developed for audio/video recording in linux where the 20-100ms delay is not really usable... that allows for <1ms of delay.

OSX also has a realtime audio layer.. the article sounds interesting, now where is our 2.8 kernel with real time processing?

This is mostly true Real Time OS's have been around for a while, and there have been Real Time Linux patches for quite some time too. I do beleave that it simply reduces the maxium latency going through the kernel. Like if i say I need foo now. In the worst case seranio it will happen X ms after I call it. That was a very simplistic explenation. I will let Wikipedia do the hard talking

um... we already have realtime through linux security modules, that page is blahblah

Realtime basically means that system calls get executed near the moment the program running in realtime mode calls them. ( I think )
This is very handy for audio-studio apps that need response on the exact moment a signal is given etc.

um... we already have realtime through linux security modules, that page is blahblah

Resisr4 is also a module but if it got it's way inside the kernel it would be news.

Aidy wrote:

Realtime basically means that system calls get executed near the moment the program running in realtime mode calls them. ( I think )

No. There is truly no easy description for RT (hard/soft, etc) but it basically means that you have a time critical code that needs to be run in a fixed interval of time (we are usuallytalking at microsecond level here) or shit happens. A system that can "guarantee" it is going to do the best to fulfill the requirement is called a RT system.

Actually this is great news because it will boost Linux in the embeded market which is probably the most important market in growth terms of the moment._________________There is a lot of novelty and truth in what you say, but that which is true is not novel and that which is novel is not true.

um... we already have realtime through linux security modules, that page is blahblah

Realtime basically means that system calls get executed near the moment the program running in realtime mode calls them. ( I think )
This is very handy for audio-studio apps that need response on the exact moment a signal is given etc.

RTOS:
a good all-encompassing article? (I am no computer scientist... so keep that in mind)

I want to optimize a single threaded simulation suite that I run, if I run it over a real-time linux solution (help me here...) will I be able to get the most out of my hardware for this one application?

My understanding goes like this: since I only want to run a simulation (number crunching, floating point, very high precision needed, no graphics) and nothing else, I could use a real-time linux solution, like the patches available for 2.6 kernel, and get the most resource commitment to my simulation, allowing a slightly faster turnaround between simulations?
oh and do those real-time solutions via patches work for amd64?